Volicon has announced that Raycom Media has installed its Observer systems at 30 television stations throughout the United States.

Individual Raycom stations use their Observer systems as an FCC-approved source of programming backup and proof for any compliance or advertiser inquiries. The system generates alerts for technical problems and targeted closed-caption keywords, exports video clips and archives the station's broadcast.

Raycom also purchased a Volicon Observer Central Monitoring system to enable monitoring of all of the company's geographically dispersed stations through a single Web-based interface at any time, from anywhere.

The Volicon system is being used to evaluate broadcast elements ranging from on-air talent to corporate image and use of graphics. With it, Raycom management and outside consultants can now easily view all of its stations from their desktop, without each station having to go through the expense and effort of sending tapes, DVDs, or video clips.

Based on a proprietary streaming video engine and player, the Observer allows a large number of users simultaneous access to multiple channels of live and archived content from their desktop using a Microsoft Internet Explorer Web interface. Users can log their own and competitors' broadcasts, as well as search, retrieve, analyze and export video clips with metadata, locally or remotely. The system archives instantly accessible content for up to a year via hardware RAID-5 storage.

The FAA’s current rules and proposed ban on flight over people, requirement of visual line of sight and restriction on nighttime flying, effectively prohibit broadcasters from using UAS for newsgathering. ~ WMUR-TV General Manager Jeff Bartlett